The Plantronics Colorplus is a

graphics card A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics accelerator, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or colloquially GPU) is a computer expansion card that generates a feed of graphics output to a displa ...

for

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the List of IBM Personal Computer models, IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible ''de facto'' standard. Released on ...

computers, first sold in 1982. It implements a superset of the then-current CGA standard, using the same monitor standard (

4-bit 4-bit computing is the use of computer architectures in which integer (computer science), integers and other data (computer science), data units are 4 bits wide. 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures a ...

digital TTL RGBI monitor) and providing the same pixel resolutions. It was produced by Frederick Electronics (of

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in, and the county seat of, Frederick County, Maryland, United States. Frederick's population was 78,171 people as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Maryland, second-largest ...

), a subsidiary of

Plantronics Plantronics, Inc. is an American electronics company producing audio communications equipment for business and consumers. Its products support unified communications, mobile use, gaming and music. Plantronics is headquartered in Santa Cruz, Cal ...

since 1968, and sold by Plantronics' Enhanced Graphics Products division. The ''Colorplus'' has twice the memory of a standard CGA board (32k, compared to 16k). The additional memory can be used in graphics modes to double the

color depth Color depth, also known as bit depth, is either the number of bits used to indicate the color of a single pixel, or the number of bits used for each color component of a single pixel. When referring to a pixel, the concept can be defined as bit ...

, giving two additional graphics modes—16 colors at resolution, or 4 colors at resolution. It uses the same Motorola MC6845 display controller as the previous MDA and CGA adapters. The original card also includes a parallel printer port.

Output capabilities

CGA compatible modes: * 16 color mode (actual a text mode using , ▌, ▐ and █) * in 4 colors from a 16 color hardware palette. Pixel aspect ratio of 1:1.2. * in 2 colors. Pixel aspect ratio of 1:2.4 * with pixel font text mode (effective resolution of ) * with pixel font text mode (effective resolution of ) In addition to the CGA modes, it offers: * with 16 colors * with 4 colors *"New high-resolution" text font, selectable by hardware jumper The "new" font was actually the unused "thin" font already present in the IBM CGA ROMs, with 1-pixel wide vertical strokes. This offered greater clarity on RGB monitors, versus the default "thick" / 2-pixel font more suitable for output to composite monitors and over RF to televisions but, contrary to Plantronics' advertising claims, was drawn at the same pixel resolution.

Software support

Few software made use of the enhanced Plantronics modes, for which there was no

BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is a type of firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization d ...

support. A 1984 advertisement listed the following software as compatible: *''Color-It'' *''

UCSD P-system UCSD Pascal is a Pascal (programming language), Pascal programming language system that runs on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1977. It was developed at the Universit ...

'' *''Peachtree Graphics Language'' *''Business Graphics System'' *''Graph Power'' *''The Draftsman'' *''Videogram'' *''Stock View'' * ''GSX'' *''CompuShow ( mode)'' Some contemporary software has added support for Plantronics modes: * ''Planet X3'', released by American YouTuber David "

The 8-Bit Guy David Murray (born 1975), commonly known as The 8-Bit Guy, is an American retrocomputing enthusiast and video game developer who runs a YouTube channel under the same name. History Murray launched his YouTube channel in 2006 under the username ...

" Murray in 2019, was the first video game known to have Colorplus support ( with 16 colors). This support was added by Planet X3 enthusiast Benedikt Freisen. * ''Attack of the Petscii Robots'' by American YouTuber David "

" in 2020, ported to MS-DOS computers with a graphics mode providing support for Plantronics Plus. * Benedikt Freisen produced updated drivers in 2021 that add Colorplus support to Sierra's

adventure games An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

that ran on '' Sierra's Creative Interpreter''. * ''FastDoom'', a port of ''Doom'' (1993 video game) developed by Victor Nieto, added support for ColorPlus with 16 colors mode in 2021.

Hardware clones

Some third-party CGA and EGA clones, such as the ATI Graphics Solution and the

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

''AutoSwitch EGA 480'', could emulate the extra modes (usually describing them simply as 'Plantronics mode'). The Thomson TO16 (a

PC-XT The IBM Personal Computer XT (model 5160, often shortened to PC/XT) is the second computer in the IBM Personal Computer line, released on March 8, 1983. Except for the addition of a built-in hard drive and extra expansion slots, it is very simi ...

compatible) and the Olivetti M19 supported Plantronics modes, along with CGA.

References

External links

"+COLORPLUS Shatters The Mold."
an original advertisement. *
USENET posting
describing the Plantronics Colorplus *Th

for the Paradise EGA chipset in the

Amstrad Amstrad plc was a British consumer electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar. During the 1980s, the company was known for its Home computer, home computers beginning with the Amstrad CPC and later also the ZX Spectrum range after the ...

PC-1640 describes its Plantronics compatibility mode. {{Computer display standard Computer display standards Graphics cards Computer-related introductions in 1982

Output capabilities

Software support

Hardware clones

See also

References

External links